April 20, 2009 • Posted By R. Alan Siler
In a poll conducted by the Total Sci-Fi Website to find the best sci-fi television theme tune of all time, the Doctor Who theme, originally composed by Ron Grainer and arranged by Delia Derbyshire at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in 1963, came in tops.
The groundbreaking theme was realized by combining a tape loop of a struck piano string with the sound of test oscillators and filters among a whole host of techniques.
Total Sci-Fi editor Matt McAllister comments: “The poll result proves that in addition to being one of the most popular science fiction shows ever created, Doctor Who also boasts the most iconic sci-fi theme tune. Grainer and Derbyshire’s theme manages to convey the outlandish quality of the show and is instantly recognisable to fans throughout the world just by its opening bars.”
Other themes in the top 10 include Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Thunderbirds. Please visit the site for the complete list.
Poor Delia never received the credit she deserved. Of all the boneheaded idiocy the BBC simply would not recognise a woman. Ron Grainer wanted her to be recognised and given the co-composer credit. Tried for years to make it happen.
I think without her contribution the Dr Who theme would have sounded like the 1996 TV Moive's
"Those were the days when we still associated Bond with suave, old school actors such as Sean Connery and Roger Moore,"
"Daniel didn't have a hint of suave about him," - Patsy Palmer
A writer in the NME once said that the reason Britain leads the world in electronic and dance music is that generations of British kids have grown up with the Doctor Who theme.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.
